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1868 + Reilly as military innovator

On 23 April 1869 E.M Reilly took out a patent for an explosive bullet. Its mentioned pretty often to illustrate mostly Reillys paucity of gun patents. No one seems to mention his Air Cane treatise which is still being cited today. But no matter - because Reilly didnt patent a top lever key or something, ergo he didnt really make guns. This silliness aside, here are some tools for the making of those explosive bullets. It actually sounds pretty neat to me, an 1869 16 bore version of an M-79?




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1868 - post 1886? Reilly Triumphs at Paris and beyond

Paris Universelle 1867 Medals: These began to be featured on his trade labels about early 1868 when rue Scribe opened. For the most part the medals disappeared from his advertisements and trade labels not long after the fall of the 2nd Empire - 1871-2? However, they did reappear from time to time per below - rare - but there are four examples;. Therefore one cannot date with absolute certainty a case label based only on the presence or absence of the medals. ** Notice that some list "Gun & Rifle Manufacturer" and others just the traditional "Gun Manufacturer."







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1870 - Reilly loves France and the Franco-Prussian War

Reilly's affinities for France were well known in UK. He was prosecuted Fall 1870 for trying to send cartridges to his shop in Paris, violating the UK Neutrality. Here is one of several newspaper articles and a letter which ends by imply that Reilly couldn't help himself..he had to do it:

London Daily News 06 October 1870


Pall Mall Gazette, 06 October 1870


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1898-1903 - Reilly Presentation Case/Trade labels

On the Reilly trade label post above, two presentation cases for EM Reilly, Gun and Rifle Maker, 277 Oxford street were posted. The departure from Gun and Rifle Manufacturer used from 1876 into the 1890s in Reilly ads (the labels often kept "gun manufacturer though after 1884, not consistently) is so interesting that I suspect these trade labels were used after 1898 after the closure of 16 Oxford Street and up to 1903 when they moved to 295 Oxford Street. Normally I could confirm this suspicion by advertisements. However, Its strange - Ive collected at least 500 Reilly advertisements from 1829 to 1898 (and could easily have another 2000). However, Reilly magazine, travel guide, calendar and newspaper advertisements seem to progressively disappear over the 1890s and I can find none after 1898. Maybe I need to search in some different ways.

Actually this is not a certainty thoughsometime in the 1850s being a Gun Maker wasnt good enough so the whole trade became Gun Manufacturers - Reilly changing in 1859. Then the English gun trade suddenly decided that being a Gun Manufacturer wasnt cool enough and so they came up with Gun & Rifle Manufacturers about 1876. Then Purdey sort of stuck with Gun & Rifle Makersand everybody kind of flocked back; so maybe its just a herd mentality - sort of like Iranian politics - and has nothing to do with the change of address in 1898.



EDIT: Well, the two "how to do-it" labels on the second case sure look like the ones posted below with 295 Oxford Street address...right down to the slanted overwriting on the second label - so I think it can safely be predicted that these two ornamental cases are in fact 1898-1903

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1902 - H.H. (Bert) Reilly and the Gunmakers Association

Here is the notice for the 1902 meeting of the British Gunmakers Association annual meeting. There are some powerful names here: Greener, Blanch, and of the people who didnt show up H.W. Holland, etc. etcand H.H. Reilly, EMs son who apparently ran the business at the age of 16?? (with help from brother? mother?) from the time of EMs death in 1890. Well, the interesting thing, besides the fact that HH didnt attend, is the existence of The Gunmmakers Association at all. Ive tried to research UK gunmakers associations and when and where they came into existence without much success. But. Its an interesting topic - what did they discuss? Who were members? How long did it exist? What organizations were predecessors? The minutes of the meetings have to be somewhere. Theres a lot of history there.


Last edited by Argo44; 09/10/18 10:51 PM.
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